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[pg666]

Quote:

j.robbins has come a long way since he cut the frame and canvass. have you heard anything he has done recently?

i LOVED the recordings he was doing in the late 90s personally (d-plan 'emergency and i', first BA record, bluetip 'polymer', jets to brazil 'orange rhyming dictionary', etc). the stuff he's done recently just reeks of pro tools to me; just tepid and 'overproduced'.. but no sense in arguing preference.

i agree that compression is here to stay and sympathize with engineers who are persistently asked for more, more, more. i know when i use it i'm very careful to compare the before and after effects (AND COMPENSATING FOR BEFORE/AFTER VOLUME, very important). what's interesting is when i've asked people you think would be compression hungry (metalheads, rockers, bassists) a lot of the time they prefer it without compression after carefully showing them what's actually happening to their signal.

i don't think it's wrong to assume the biggest squashers out there are probably not asking musicians what they think, at least in a way that's fair. "look, it made it louder!!"..

[j.hall]

you gotta keep in mind that at the level some of these "squashers" work at, the band doesn't always have much to do with it.

it's easy to hide behind a statement like, "i merely serve the band".  but in reality, i think we all serve our clients as best we can.  it's simply good business to make the people who pay the bill happy.  

so in many cases, the guys we all name and drag through the mud are working for record labels.  sure they might default to using loads of compression, but then again, i'd like to think they understand what the client is going to want and they are merely saving themselves the time of doing a lot of recalls.

you can't keep clients by pissing them off.

[pg666]

Quote:

it's easy to hide behind a statement like, "i merely serve the band". but in reality, i think we all serve our clients as best we can. it's simply good business to make the people who pay the bill happy.

at the end of the day, it's the band that pays for it, indie or major.

*morphing into steve albini as i sign off*
brian

[syncopation]

j.hall wrote on Fri, 13 January 2006 08:00

j.robbins has come a long way since he cut the frame and canvass.  have you heard anything he has done recently? you can like raw uncompressed records all you want, i'm not trying to convince people that comrpessed rock n roll is for every body. i will tell you this......comrpessed rock n roll is here to stay.  i haven't cut a record in 2 years that the band asked for less compression.  i'm fairly light on it as it is, and they are always asking for more.....louder, more aggressive, in your face.  honestly, you can't deliver what they want without compression, you just can't do it.....i've tried.

The last j.robbins stuff I got was the jets to brazil, which I loved. Would you recommend any of his newer stuff as a good/bad?

I guess my point is that sometimes compression can be overused and kill the unique sound of a band, or the environment that the record is created in. I guess we are in a period of creating singles and striving to be louder (can you make it louder?) than our contemporaries. Do we really need everything on the radio to sound like Blink182? Sure it's here to stay. Bands want that sound, label want that sound. It's the sound of success to some.
~Brian

[j.hall]

i'm not saying you just crush everything and walk away with your money.

i'm actually pretty "easy on the compression" compared to some.

j.robbins has recently done

Mock Orange
Clutch
The Life and Times
Nakotomi Plaza
Drop Sonic
Maritime

[pg666]

Quote:

i'm not saying you just crush everything and walk away with your money. i'm actually pretty "easy on the compression" compared to some.

oh, i know. my post was channeled towards the 'big name' smashers and their A&R chimps.

[edit: just realized that probably wasn't a response to me]

other recent examples of J. Robbins' work (more on the smashee-smashee side):

-pilot to gunner
-murder by death
-actionslacks

[Ryan A. Mills]

I've heard that J. Robbins is working on a record (or has done recently) with The Forms. I'm really looking forward to that one.

[spankenstein]

j.hall wrote on Fri, 13 January 2006 16:23

Mock Orange

"Mind is Not Brain" is a great album. It's slick and interesting. As far as natural, other than the effects that are impossible in shitty little clubs it sounds like them. A best case rendering of a band performing.